1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to foldable structures and more particularly to resilient foldable structures that coil when folding.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One reason people use resilient foldable structures that coil when folding is because of convenience. The slang term used for this type of structure is “pop-up”. For example, people purchase pop-up nets, pop-up tents, pop-up sunshades, pop-up canopies, pop-up green screens, pop-up sun scrims, pop-up reflectors used in photography, and other pop-up products for many different applications.
The reason this type of foldable structure is so popular is because when you purchase a pop-up structure all you have to do is take the structure out of the box and toss it outward and the resilient coilable structure automatically pops-up (unfolds) and is ready to use. Then to fold the coilable structure for storage, all you have to do is coil the resilient frame back up and the frame structure quickly folds for storage.
When this “pop-up” structure was first introduced it was tremendously popular because there was “no assembly required”.
However, as the coilable resilient frame structure began to gain popularity in the market place the user quickly learned that unfolding the frame structure was a snap, but learning how to coil it back up was a very precise operation and was very difficult and for some people it was next to impossible.
One example of this type of folding problem featured a sales rep. who represented a company that made pop-up nets. This type of pop-up net is used by ball players to practice throwing baseballs, softballs, footballs, and other types of objects into the net. He said the first time he took the folded pop-up net out of his vehicle and into the store to demonstrate to a sporting goods buyer that he opened up the net and it quickly popped-up as expected. Then he began his sales presentation and showed how easy it was to use. Then the embarrassing part came, when he began to explain how easy it was to coil for quick assembly, he began coiling the resilient frame back up but couldn't get it to coil. After making several unsuccessful attempts to foldably coil the resilient frame back up, he was so embarrassed that he just left the unfolded pop-up net with the buyer because he couldn't fit it back in his vehicle.
Another example of this type of folding problem occurred with a dealer/buyer who was testing a pop-up net to consider purchasing for a line of chain stores, but when he tried to foldably coil the pop-up net for storage, he couldn't figure out how to coil it back up. Since then the buyer has moved most of his purchases on to purchasing ball nets that don't require coiling for folding.
In summary, the resilient coilable frame structure sometimes known as a “pop-up” frame structure is one of the easiest types of frame structures to set-up because there is “no assembly required” but foldably coiling the resilient frame structure back up for storage is almost next to impossible. Because of this difficulty in folding, the popularity of this type of coilable resilient frame structure is losing its popularity and people are moving on to other less convenient frame structure designs that are easier to fold.
The inventor knows of no known examples of prior art that discloses a solution for providing a way to facilitate coiling a resilient foldable frame structure.
3. Objective of the Invention.
It is an objective of the present invention to accomplish at least one of the following objects and advantages.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a coiling-assist assembly to facilitate coiling a resilient frame while folding.
It is another object of the present invention to make it easy for a person to fold a coilable resilient frame structure.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention when taken in conjunction with the appended claims.